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Online Wargaming.

  I don't think I've been the only person who has been looking at ways to play my favorite Competitive board games online. And its seems like a whole treasure trove of untapped potential for Roll20. The Games I'm talking about here are stuff like Warhammer 40k, Guildball, Warmachine, and Infinity. I would love for there to be a way to get a group of people into playing some competitive games. But, there seems to be some features lacking that would really drive this possibility.   What is a War Game?   So to get people caught up on what I'm talking about let me go over what these games are about, and how they typically run. War games are competitive/casual fun factories. They feature separate factions that battle for dominance over land, treasure, and GLORY. They are highly tactical, allowing for and combination of awesome mechanics and cunning maneuvers. Typically war games involve two players, though they can often expand to include a whole lot more. Typically games are broken down into s few categories: such as matched play for tournaments, free play to try out units and tactics with your buddies, and campaign which enables each session to be linked together into a story. Then each player chooses a faction to play with which gives them access to certain abilities that others might not have. So What's the Deal?   Traditionally these games are done on the tabletop where each player brings their army to the game table, set up the rules, roll out the mat, and get to playing. And, while you could technically play a game like this already on Roll20, there are some features missing that could really improve its implementation. Lets first off talk about the tokens. Everyone loves to have their own tokens put into any game. But, on Roll20, the only person who can implant their tokens is the Game Master. Similarly, being able to create your own sheet has been left to the GM, though you can have another person edit it later on. Burden is also placed on the game host to have all the rules need for the game. The ability to place in objectives and set up is only given to the Game Admin, good reasons for that of course, but it would be nice to have other people's help at times as well though. The Solution?   We need to have the option to enable Admin roles to our players. Not just for wargaming, but for or roleplaying and other games as well. if this can be implemented, it would certainly place Roll20 a step ahead of the crowd, and give players more freedom for their games.
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Scott C.
Forum Champion
Sheet Author
API Scripter
Compendium Curator
I think you may be unaware of several features of Roll20 that I believe should address these issues: Lets first off talk about the tokens. Everyone loves to have their own tokens put into any game. But, on Roll20, the only person who can implant their tokens is the Game Master. Similarly, being able to create your own sheet has been left to the GM, though you can have another person edit it later on. These two have a combined answer. Any character can have a default token. Additionally, these default tokens can be rollable table tokens. This means that you can have a single character per "army" with it's token set to a rollable token with all the various units of the army. Or you can have a "character" per unit in the army. Now, to address getting your units into a game without requiring the GM to set everything up for you. The character vault allows anyone to store their characters. Importing a character into a game from the vault is available in games created by plus or higher subscribers or using modules with the all access vault enabled. These characters retain all of their settings and attributes from the original game. You can use this to then import your army into the game that you will be playing in. If the character is set to be controlled/viewed by "all" it will retain that setting on being imported into the new game. The ability to place in objectives and set up is only given to the Game Admin, good reasons for that of course, but it would be nice to have other people's help at times as well though. The GM role is not restricted to the creator of the game. Any player can be promoted to GM , and there is no limit to the number of GMs in a game.
To expand on what Scott said: I have a pen and paper group where everyone has the gm status, because we switch the gm quite often. They could even play without me being there.
1541789784
Caden
Forum Champion
Sheet Author
API Scripter
Compendium Curator
With the Character Vault, players can import/export characters which equates to tokens. This would allow players to bring in their own armies.  There is an API script that will let players make their own character sheets. Though I would encourage players to make their own table, make/manage their 'armies' there, and then import them with Character Vault. You can promote everyone to GM on a common table if you want them to manage their own stuff.  A lot of what you're looking for is already built in given Roll20's is a system agnostic platform. Its not optimized for wargaming but they can be played as I have done so. :)
I've been looking at setting up an Ogre/GEV campaign using Roll20 the last month or so. The only sticking point is the counterset which I haven't had time to create yet. Maps are dirt simple (I use Google Earth or OgreMap2), the dice are already available, and popping up the combat tables and rules is as simple as creating a handout or Rulebook in the Handouts section.
Very cool. thank you all. I was unaware of many of these features. Guess I just did not look hard enough for them previously.
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